When Welker is lined up in the slot receiver position, Thomas should line up across from him in one on one situations. I fear that Welker could absolutely abuse Trufant, he's just simply too quick. I think he could end up with 12-15 catches if we keep Tru on him. Thomas has the speed, and in my opinion the skills, to hang with Welker even though he hasn't played corner since his days at Texas. Thoughts?

"There is no delay of game. We did not let the team know we were scratching our balls"

I could see the Seahawks putting Thomas on Welker a few times during the game, but not EVERY time. With the way the hawks mix things up, and the way they like to use Earl all over the field, you can probably count on him covering Welker at one point or another. But I don't see them switching up their whole Defense and have Earl become a full-time nickle corner this week.

HawkFan72 wrote:I could see the Seahawks putting Thomas on Welker a few times during the game, but not EVERY time. With the way the hawks mix things up, and the way they like to use Earl all over the field, you can probably count on him covering Welker at one point or another. But I don't see them switching up their whole Defense and have Earl become a full-time nickle corner this week.

I'm a big fan of Jeron Johnson, but I don't think he can do what Earl can do from the FS spot. Earl is like the fast moving, last line of defense contingency plan for everything back there, and that ability to cover an insane amount of ground is what is likely going to allow Kam to move up and help contain Gronk.

I too am very worried about Welker, but I don't think taking Earl out of his normal spot is going to be the answer. What about that Danny Gorrer kid we picked up? I read somewhere that he totally shut down Santonio Holmes when he played for Baltimore a couple years ago. That might be the kind of performance we need...

arghawkfan wrote:I would actually like to see them activate Winston Guy for this matchup and take advantage of his size to matchup with whichever TE Kam doesn't cover and to use him in exotic blitzes.

Hernandez isn't really all that big (at least compared to Gronk), so size isn't really a factor. He's more of an H-Back Kellen Winslow type TE. I think Bobby Wagner will probably match up fairly well against him because of his speed.

Agreed, no bueno on Welker versus Trufant. I love our defense but think quick slot receivers are our biggest weakness (Rams game comes to mind). I'm hoping Thurmond becomes that guy who can match up with those quick guys inside, having a big physical corner doesn't work so well on slut guys because they have so much space to work with.

hawksfanohio wrote:I would like to see Sherman on welker, Browner on Lloyd, and let Kam stick Gronk. Then let Earl roam and lbers on hernandez if he plays.

I think that's probably going to be the best scenario. Throw a little double team of KJ and Kam on the Incredible Gronk will probably have him and Tom throwing fits. I don't know if Gronk has ever had that many big, fast moving dudes around him at one time.

A big key to dealing with the Pats O is going to be containing Gronk without committing too many resources into doing it (cuz sure as shit Tommy will carve us up somewhere else).

I had a long post written up with a lot of PFFs advanced stats in it. I accidentally deleted it not going to re-write it out, basically Trufant hasn't been that bad been average overall and actually above average in the slot. Not that he won't have trouble with NE because NE has an amazing offense but he has taken the most snaps in slot coverage for us and I would think is our best option there.

I keep hearing how big of a problem Tru is gonna be, and yet week after week he quietly holds his own. He don't have the size and nastiness of the rest of the crew but he does "his" job extremely well without complaining or whining even when he is asked to switch positions on the field.

Nope. Earl Thomas is the very reason why we are able to play tight man coverage as opposed to soft zone coverage. Placing him at corner eliminates our ability to cover the entire field with a single deep safety.

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Remember before Pete came and we were playing soft zone, I would get so angry, we would just give them 5 yards every play so happy that we play a press man coverage now and make it hard for the other team's receivers.